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The HONOR 90 is the company’s latest mid-ranger. It launched alongside its ‘Pro’ sibling. The ‘Pro’ model is somewhat more powerful, mainly due to its processor. That phone comes with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, while the HONOR 90, which we have here, is fueled by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. This phone is supposed to compete with mid-rangers out there, and not high-end devices available on the market. We’re here to review the HONOR 90, and see if it delivers, or misses the mark. Having said that, let’s just in, shall we?
Table of contents
HONOR 90 Review: Hardware / Design
If this design looks familiar to you, there’s a good reason for it. The HONOR 90 basically continues the design trend HONOR started for this series a couple of years ago. It consists out of an aluminum frame, which is stuck between two sheets of glass, both of which are curved. The sides are proportional, and the phone feels great in the hand, actually. It is not small, but thanks to the fact it’s not heavy either, and this design, it feels really good to hold.
The HONOR 90 is slippery, no doubt about that, but I find it easier to grip and use than most other glass phones. I mentioned its weight, the phone weighs 183 grams. Most flagships with the same or similar footprint weigh over 200 grams. Some of them weigh well over 200 grams, so this was kind of refreshing to use. Mid-rangers usually weigh less, which is always a nice change. It’s not easy to use with one hand, but it’s easier than most flagships that end up being heavier.
There are two camera islands included on the back. The top one includes two cameras, while the bottom one has one, and an LED flash. The bezels around the phone’s display are quite minimal, and there’s a single camera hole here, which is centered at the top. The buttons are nice and clicky too. There’s really not much to complain about here, when it comes to design. The phone also feels solid in the hand, and could pass for a more expensive device, easily. HONOR has, once again, done a great job.
Accessories
First and foremost, let me just say that a charger is included in the box. We’ll talk more about charging later on, but I just wanted to point that out real quick. You’ll also get a regular see-through gel/soft silicone case in the box. Many Chinese OEMs do that these days, and it’s always nice to see. That case always offers good protection all around, and adds some grip to the equation. It’s good to use in general, or until you manage to get something better/different.
HONOR 90 Review: Display
The HONOR 90 boasts a 6.1-inch fullHD+ (2664 x 1200) AMOLED display. It is sharper than most displays in this smartphone segment, and it’s also brighter than most. It has a peak brightness of 1,600 nits. This panel also offers a 120Hz refresh rate, and can project up to 1 billion colors. The screen-to-body ratio is also quite high, especially for this price segment. It’s also worth noting that the display is curved a bit, but not to the degree it would be annoying to use.
I had zero issues with this panel during my usage. It not only offers very pleasant, vivid colors, but the viewing angles are great too, and the blacks are deep. It’s more than sharp enough, and more than smooth enough. HONOR also has some really nice animations thrown in there, and they’re very smooth. This company usually does a great job when it comes to animations, and even on default setting they don’t feel too slow, which is something I appreciate.
The color bleed on the sides was also a non-issue when watching content, as long as you look at the phone straight on, of course. On some phones that can be quite a considerable problem, but not here. Again, this is something I’m used to based on the HONOR 50 and HONOR 70 I’ve tested in the past.
HONOR 90 Review: Performance
Unlike its ‘Pro’ sibling, the HONOR 90 utilizes the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition. It does not use the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor. The HONOR 90’s chip is inferior, but truth be said, you shouldn’t worry about it too much. Well, unless you’re planning to use this phone for gaming, or something of the sort, this won’t really mean much to you. This chip is manufactured by TSMC, the same as Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which is a good thing. It generally offers good performance, and the same is the case here. You can’t really ask for anything better considering the price tag.
Using the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 would make more sense, in all honesty, but that chip is manufactured by Samsung, so many of you would probably opt for the Gen 1, mainly due to the battery benefits. In any case, the performance was really good. During regular usage, even with plenty of multitasking, I never felt like I’d pushed the phone too far. So even if you do tend to use your phone a lot, for various tasks, this one should hold up. I’ve been multitasking like crazy, and doing everything from browsing, listening to YouTube Music in the background, and skipping between image and video editing. The phone did just fine. There was a stutter here and there, but that’s not something most people will even notice, so it’s not something you should worry about.
HONOR’s well-executed animations did play a role here. Many OEMs consider animations to be an afterthought based on their implementations, but they’re very intentional here, and very smooth. They did not visibly bog the phone down or anything of the sort, and made the whole experience of using the device better.
Where I did notice that this phone is not running a flagship-grade chip is in gaming. The moment I ran something a bit more graphically-intensive, it was apparent I was using a mid-range phone, not a flagship one. Don’t get me wrong, you can play games with this thing, but don’t expect the most graphically-intensive titles, such as Genshin Impact, to run great.
HONOR 90 Review: Battery
The HONOR 90 includes a 5,000mAh battery on the inside. That is a slightly larger battery than the one included in its predecessor, the HONOR 70. That phone included a 4,800mAh battery. In addition to a bigger battery, and slightly larger display, the HONOR 90 also comes with a more efficient SoC. It is fueled by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, a 4nm chip, compared to the 6nm Snapdragon 778G+ which was included in the HONOR 70. There’s a point I’m making this comparison. The HONOR 70 offered good battery life, that’s for sure, but the HONOR 90 takes things to a whole new level.
With the HONOR 70, I was able to cross the 7-hour mark comfortably. In fact, I reached an 8-hour mark with a few perfect left in the tank once, and on several other days, I was close to it. That’s not battery life at all. With the HONOR 90, things are even better. Reaching that 8-hour screen-on-time mark is not a problem, at least it wasn’t during my usage. I never reached further than that, but when I crossed the 8-hour mark, I was left with over 28% of battery in the tank, that happened on two occasions during more intense usage days. What I’m trying to say is… you really don’t have to worry about running out of juice here.
If you do, however, end up running short… 66W charging is supported here, in addition to 5W reverse wired charging. You do get a charger in the box too, so you’re all set from the get-go. Getting to 100% from 0% takes about 40 minutes, which is not bad at all. You’ll reach 60% in half that time.
HONOR 90 Review: Camera
The HONOR 90 features a 200-megapixel main camera (f/1.9 aperture, 0.56um pixel size, PDAF). A 12-megapixel ultrawide camera (112-degree FoV, f/2.2 aperture) is also included on the back, along with a 2-megapixel depth camera (f/2.4 aperture). HONOR opted for Samsung’s ISOCELL HP3 main camera sensor here. Truth be said, I was skeptical at first, but the phone does offer a really compelling camera performance.
The photos during the day do end up looking vivid without ending up too saturated, while the details are also on point most of the time. I’ve noticed that the white balance can be a bit off sometimes, even when it shouldn’t be based on the conditions in the image. The phone did a great job with almost every shot in daytime conditions. Even when HDR was in play, it handled itself really well most of the time.
Nighttime images also turn up good, for the most part. Light flares are quite considerable, and such scenes can really mess up a shot. At times only glares are what you need to worry about, while other times the whole image ends up looking overexposed. That didn’t happen frequently at all, though, so it’s not really something that should worry you. For the most part, the phone did a good job in low light, as you can see in the provided camera samples.
Ultrawide camera handled itself well during the day, but images taken with it were clearly a step below what the main camera offers. In low light the difference is even more noticeable, I’d suggest sticking with the main camera in low light conditions. The video recording was good, on par with other offerings in this pricing sector, while the selfie camera performed great, actually. HONOR opted to include a capable selfie camera here, and it shows.
Wide & ultrawide side-by-side:
Other camera samples:
HONOR 90 Review: Software
If you’ve used a recent HONOR smartphone, you know exactly what to expect on the software side of things. Android 13 comes pre-installed here, with HONOR’s MagicOS 7.1 skin. That skin reminds us of what Huawei offers with EMUI, which is unsurprising, and it does function a bit differently than other Android skins we’re used to. The performance is outstanding though, as the software is really well-optimized to work with this hardware.
Think of MagicOS as a combination of Android and iOS, as that’s what I feel like whenever I’m using it. There are some customization options included here, but not a lot. For example, when you swipe top down across the home screen, you’ll be thrown into a search dialog aka HONOR Search. You can disable this, but cannot assign anything else to that action. So you cannot call upon the notification shade this way, as you can on many Android phones.
You’re very limited in terms of home screen layouts, while the apps are all on your homescreen by default. Luckily, you can change that. Accessing home screen settings is done by pinching, not pressing and holding. Swiping notifications away is done left to right, if you do it the other way around, you’ll be required to do it once again, as it brings up a menu after the first swipe, and so on. These are only some examples of ways MagicOS differs from many other Android OS builds.
This is something you’ll either like, or hate. It’s hard to deny that MagicOS works great, though. The animations are excellent, and not too slow either. It could look a bit less childish, but thanks to some themes, you can change that a bit. While I was using it I kept getting the same feeling. It works great, but it looks… well, not done. HONOR should spruce up the UI a bit more, and add more options to it. The performance is stellar already.
HONOR 90 Review: Should you buy it?
The HONOR 90 is actually a truly capable mid-range handset. It is a step down compared to flagships in some ways, of course, but in most of them it’s right on par with them. The battery life is really good, and so is that display. Plus it’s brighter than pretty much anything the competition has to offer. The main camera is good enough, and with some added optimizations, it could be truly good. Even the performance is good, and you don’t have to worry about it, unless you’re planning to play graphically-demanding games. Overall, the HONOR 90 is a really neat package, and a very solid offering at its price tag. There’s a lot to like here.
You should buy the HONOR 90 if:
- You want a truly bright display on a mid-range phone
- You like to take photos, but don’t need a telephoto camera
- You don’t play graphically-demanding games
- You are using your phone quite a bit during the day
- You loved the HONOR 50 or 70
- You want a different experience
You shouldn’t buy the HONOR 90 if:
- You’re playing graphically-intensive games
- You want more camera versatility
- You need water and dust resistance